Kenny hit me up with one of the Baseball Card Day singles last year. Kenny, I want to personally apologize for not being great about sending stuff back. I will start to compile something shortly for you. These cards are tough to come by for me, so I always appreciate other collectors helping me out.
Packs have been tough to come by the last couple years and I have been too busy to organize my tradelist to make trades. So, a lot of cards have been coming through the various Topps online sets. Player selection is generally pretty good, particularly with Topps Now. The big drawback is the price. So I usually buy my singles through sellers on Ebay who offer discounts. Here are a whole bunch of them from various sets:
I have always liked multi-player cards, so I grabbed this one from the Throwback Thursday ongoing sets. It is a little odd to put Xander Bogaerts with Bobby Dalbec, instead of Rafael Devers. Dalbec of course was the big, hyped rookie last year for the Red Sox, so Topps wanted to take advantage of that. Still, it seems more natural to put Bogaerts and Devers together since they play right next to each other and seem to have a very close friendship.
June 11, 2021
The Blue Jays led this game 5-1 going into the bottom of the sixth inning before the Red Sox bats came alive. Jays reliever Tyler Chatwood came unglued, allowing two runs to score on a walk and a wild pitch. In the eighth, Christian Arroyo homered to tie the game. In the ninth, Alex Verdugo laced a single to left to score Danny Santana with the winning run. Verdugo had three hits in four at-bats that game.
June 16, 2021
In one of the biggest clutch hits of the season, Christian Arroyo demolished a pitch in the seventh inning with the bases loaded. Boston was down 7-6 at the time to the eventual World Champion Braves. Arroyo was pinch-hitting in the pitcher's slot at the time. You cannot ask for a bigger clutch hit.
July 17, 2021
Topps Now likes to highlight the first major achievements of the top prospects upon their debuts. Jarren Duran was a bigtime prospect who made his Major League debut against the Yankees and ripped a single in his first at-bat. Unfortunately, the Red Sox lost that game in a rain-shortened six innings 3-1.
Here is another multi-player card from Throwback Thursday. The design here was the 1993 Topps All Star subset, which was a pretty decent design from the junk wax era. Of course, the point at the time was to highlight players from each league at the same position. Still, can't go wrong with the two most recent Red Sox Hall of Famers, David Ortiz and Pedro Martinez.
July 19, 2021
The Red Sox exploded for eight runs in the first inning against the Blue Jays en route to a 13-4 drubbing. Duran drove in the first two runs with his first Major League home run, scoring Enrique Hernandez. It was Duran's only hit of the day.
Unfortunately cards have still been hard to come across in retail stores around me. So, I grab them when they are available. I was lucky to find a blaster of Gypsy Queen at one point last year.
It was a reasonably successful break, yielding four Red Sox cards. All base cards, but still. Two of them were rookie cards, so there is that. Both Tanner Houck and Bobby Dalbec made appearances. And the other two were the big, homegrown stars.
Houck bounced between the majors and minors all year, but seemed to nail down a permanent spot by the end of the season, even if he still alternated between the rotation and bullpen. He finished with a record of 1-5, but had a 3.52 ERA with 87 strikeouts and 21 walks in 69 innings pitched.
Bogaerts and Devers had their usual huge seasons. Bogaerts was an All Star and hit .295/.370/.493 with 23 home runs and 79 RBIs. As good as he was, Devers was better. Devers hit .279/.352/.538 with team-leading 38 home runs and 113 RBIs. He was also an All Star.
Dalbec struggled at times and strikes out way too much, but had a couple months where he was on fine. He ended up hitting .240/.298/.494 with 25 home runs and 78 RBIs.
Still playing catch-up here. Topps Now and the other online sets have become a go-to for me in the last couple of years. Particularly due to player selection, but also because I can actually get my hands on them.
Here are the results from another one of those case breaks I bought into last year. This was Topps Series 2.
Kyle Schwarber split his time with Boston almost evenly between left field, designated hitter and first base, so he would fall into the utility position. Marwin Gonzalez appeared primarily at second base, but also spent significant time at first, left field and shortstop. He also appeared at third, right field and even pitched. Danny Santana primarily played first base and center field, but also played in left field and designated hitter. The previous utility man who was my pick was Bill Hall. Hall spent the 2010 season in Boston after being acquired from the Mariners. Hall played in 119 games primarily between left field and second base, but also appearing at the other two outfield spots, third base, shortstop and even pitching. Hall hit .247/.316/.456 with 18 home runs, 46 RBIs and nine stolen bases.
Schwarber was acquired at the trading deadline in 2021 for Aldo Ramirez. He was injured at the time of his acquisition so it was a couple of weeks before he appeared in a game for the Red Sox, but he proved to be worth the wait. He played in 41 games, hitting .291/.435/.522 with seven home runs, 18 RBIs and ten doubles. He hit three more home runs with six RBIs in the postseason.
Santana had hit 28 home runs as recently as 2019 and was acquired to provide versatility as well as speed from the bench. It did not work out well. Santana hit just .181/.252/.345 in 38 games. He did add five home runs and stole four bases, but only add two doubles, a triple and 14 RBIs. He did notably score the winning run in the ALDS against the Rays.
Hall played in more games, spending the entire season with the team and did have more in the way of counting stats, obviously. He also has a slight edge in WAR (1.8 to 1.3). Schwarber has the lead in the rate stats though. Hall has more versatility, playing every position except first base and catcher. He even pitched. I think the fact that Hall played the entire season and is a bit more of a classic utility player will carry the decision. Schwarber was fantastic and I am disappointed he is no longer with the team. I just think for these purposes, Hall has a slight edge.
I have had three jury trials in the last two-plus months. So things have been a little hectic. I am 1-1 with my client not showing up for the other one. I still did the work in preparation though, even if it did not actually go forward. By the way, not showing up for your own jury trial is bad.
So, up first in my return is a couple of Living Set singles. Boston suddenly got a bunch of these last year, and I grabbed up some of the not-as-prevalent players:
Nathan Eovaldi was Boston's ace in 2021. He led the league in FIP (2.79), starts (32) and walks per nine (1.7). He was an All Star for the first time and finished fourth in the Cy Young vote. 2022 is his last year of his contract, and I have a difficult time seeing him back with the team. If it is his last year, he has had some big moments with the team.
Kyle Schwarber was the big midseason acquisition. Hopefully Boston can find a way to bring him back, but with the universal DH now, the chances are getting slimmer. Schwarber hit .291/.435/.522 with seven home runs and 18 RBIs in his couple months with the team. The move was criticized at the time after the Yankees got assumed-target Anthony Rizzo and Schwarber was hurt, but he really turned out well.
